GuildOne Inc. (GuildOne) is proud to announce that it has been working with R3 to transform the oil and gas sector with the ground-breaking innovation of GuildOne’s Energy Block Exchange (EBX) blockchain business network using R3’s blockchain platform, Corda, on Amazon Web Services (AWS). Corda is an enterprise-grade blockchain platform that removes costly friction in business transactions by enabling institutions to transact directly using smart contracts, while ensuring the highest levels of privacy and security.

For over 20 years, GuildOne has supplied advanced data solutions and business intelligence to help oil and gas companies navigate market challenges. Since 2015, GuildOne has been exploring the potential of new technologies, such as blockchain – including distributed ledger and smart contracts – and artificial intelligence to create new efficiencies by eliminating data and contract disputes and facilitating real-time value exchange.

In February 2018, the company announced a pioneering proof-of-concept (PoC) oil and gas royalty transaction, conducted together with key industry partners on GuildOne’s Royalty Ledger application using R3’s Corda. Last month, at R3’s CordaCon London 2018, the company unveiled an upcoming PoC for Hydrocarbon Ledger, a blockchain application that tracks measurement data along the hydrocarbon value chain, reducing or eliminating costly dispute points and triggering instant value exchange upon commodity transfer.

These projects illustrate the importance of technology partnerships in identifying and driving new value for oil and gas companies. “Blockchain is not about individuals; it’s a team sport. Our relationship with R3 has been invaluable to integrating convergent technologies to reduce costs and increase revenues for energy sector players,” says James Graham, President and CEO of GuildOne.  The company chose AWS because of its ability to meet stringent security needs and quickly establish nodes on a blockchain network, so organizations can start transacting immediately. R3’s Corda was the ideal blockchain platform because it meets the demands of the highly regulated financial industry. Knowing the strict standards R3 used to build its platform was a key differentiator to the GuildOne team as they chose a platform on which to build blockchain solutions.

David E. Rutter, co-founder and CEO of R3 said: “Oil and gas markets are so integral to global commerce that they have an impact on virtually all other business activity. By enabling information sharing to reduce disputes and help the market run more smoothly, this technology will have positive ripple effects which stretch well beyond oil and gas. From the very beginning, Corda was built with enterprise in mind, this makes it the perfect platform for projects like EBX.”

GuildOne’s relationships with R3 and AWS speak to the potential that emerging technologies such as blockchain have to transform the oil and gas industry. “We believe that blockchain offers the potential of truly frictionless, dispute-free transactions,” says GuildOne’s Graham. “If we’re able to get to a dispute-free state of interaction, we believe we can drive revenue completeness for all parties involved in the oil and gas industry, regardless of size or resources they may have at their disposal to complete transactions and settle contracts.”